“Where Can I Put My Stuff?”
Luke 12:13-21
In a monologue, a comedian talks about our obsession with the accumulation of material possessions, and the modern anxiety for which it is both the cause and result:
“You got your stuff with you?” he asks his audience.
“Guys have stuff in their pockets; women have stuff in their purses…Stuff is important.
You got to take care of your stuff.
You gotta have a place for your stuff.
That’s what life is all about, tryin’ to find a place for your stuff!
That’s all your house is; a place to keep your stuff.
If you didn’t have so much stuff you wouldn’t need a house.
You could just walk around all the time.
A house is just a pile of stuff with a cover on it.
You can see that when you’re taking off in an airplane.
You look down and see all the little piles of stuff.
Everybody’s got their own stuff.”
In our Gospel Lesson for this morning, Jesus is starting to gain a lot of followers.
He is becoming influential.
Crowds are surrounding Him and hanging on His every Word.
Most people view Him as being a Jewish Rabbi and it was normal, back then, for Rabbi’s to settle any number of disputes between persons.
They were considered to be the arbiters and those who possessed the words of wisdom.
So, someone who is having a family feud with his brother comes to Jesus and says, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
How many times has money and the dividing up of estates driven a wedge between family members?
How many of us know people who are no longer speaking to one another because of a disagreement over money?
In any event, according to Jewish inheritance practices, an older brother would get two-thirds of an estate and the younger brother would get one-third.
But instead of getting involved in this, Jesus says: “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?’
Then he said to them, ‘Watch Out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed.
A person’s life does not consist in the abundance of their possessions.’”
In other words, Jesus is warning this man and the crowd listening: “Don’t let money and possessions control your lives.
Don’t allow greed to be your master.
Don’t waste your time on things like this.
This isn’t what the kingdom of God is about.
This isn’t what you have been created for.”
And then He goes on to tell the parable we read as an example of a wasted life.
Jesus is saying, “Here is how NOT to live.”
There was once a guy whose barns were already bursting to overflowing.
He was a rich man and he harvested, yet, another bumper crop.
It’s enough to feed him for years and years and then some.
It’s more food than any one person could ever use or need in a lifetime.
And since, before this bumper crop comes, he already has more than one person could ever need, he says to himself: “’What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’
Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store my surplus grain.”
In Matthew 6:24 Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon” –Mammon means “STUFF!”
“You cannot serve both God and [Stuff].”
The comedian continued on with his monologue he said, “So now you got a household of stuff.
And even though you might like your house, you gotta move.
Gotta get a bigger house.
Why?
Too much stuff!
And that means you gotta move all your stuff.
Or maybe, put some of your stuff in storage.
Storage!
Imagine that.
There’s a whole industry based on keepin’ an eye on other people’s stuff.”
Every time we pass a new storage facility, Clair says, “We’re building bigger barns.”
The farmer in Jesus’ parable says, “I have no place to store my crops.”
And it doesn’t even occur to him that there are people—hundreds, thousands of people who are hungry, starving, struggling to feed their families, dying in the streets even—who could really be helped if he were to simply share his overabundance.
It doesn’t even cross his mind.
He is so focused on himself that he has forgotten both the God Who caused the crops to grow and the neighbor whom he is called to love.
With all this excess at the center of his life, the man plunges into the trap of greed and idolatry.
Money, possessions and his concern for “me, myself and I” have become his god and he misses the point of his life.
It’s a sad state of affairs and it’s too easy for all of us to get caught in this trap.
The Bible teaches over and over again that God’s plan is that those who have been given much are to share what they have with those who have little so that all will have enough.
It’s the way life is supposed to work.
It is true KINGDOM LIVING.
In our culture we often measure ourselves and others by the size of our storehouses.
In the Kingdom of God, however, the storehouses are sold and life is measured by what we do for others.
Like the rich farmer, we are tempted to think that having large amounts of money and possessions stored up will make us secure.
Sooner or later, though, we learn that no amount of money or property can make our lives secure.
No amount of wealth can protect us from a genetically inherited disease or from a tragic accident.
No amount of wealth can keep our relationships healthy and our families from falling apart.
In fact, wealth and property can easily drive a wedge between family members, as in the case of the brothers fighting over their inheritance at the beginning of this passage.
Most importantly, no amount of wealth can secure our lives with God.
In fact, Jesus repeatedly warns that wealth can get in the way of our relationship with God.
And it’s not that God doesn’t want us to save for retirement or future needs such as putting our kids through college.
It’s not that God doesn’t want us to “eat, drink and be merry” and enjoy what God has given us.
We know from the Gospels that Jesus spent time eating and drinking with His disciples and other people; enjoying life.
But He was also clear about where our TRUE SECURITY is found.
It’s found in trusting in Jesus for everything.
It’s about who or what is truly god in our lives.
It’s about how we invest our lives and the gifts God has given us or really loaned us for a while.
It’s about how our lives are fundamentally aligned: toward ourselves and our passing desires, or toward God and our neighbor, toward God’s mission to redeem the world.
You know, during my 22 years of pastoral ministry I have heard many different people tell me of their regrets near the end of their lives, but there is one regret I have never heard.
I have never heard anyone say, “I wish I hadn’t given so much away.
I wish I had kept more for myself.”
Death does have a way of clarifying what really matters.
Greed is one of those words that by definition simply has no positive meaning.
Often, I think, the source of our greed is a lack of satisfaction with life.
There’s always another “golden calf” out there that we imagine will make our lives complete.
But no matter how much stuff we manage to accumulate, it’s never enough.
There’s always an empty place inside us that won’t be filled with newer, nicer, better things.
So, what will it take for us to be truly happy with our lives?
I think Augustine got it right back in the late fourth century when he wrote: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you.”
A person lost at sea can’t quench his or her thirst from the ocean, no matter how much sea water that person drinks.
In a similar fashion, possession after possession or dollar upon dollar will not fill an empty soul or cure a hurting heart.
Ultimately, only God through Christ can do that.
Money can do lots of wonderful things—it can provide for you and your family, it can be given to others in need, it can be used to create jobs…
…but it just can’t produce the kind of full and abundant life that each of us seeks and that Jesus promises.
So, this parable isn’t about the money; it’s about our attitude towards the money and those around us.
Truth be told, I think most of us know and believe that what Jesus says is true.
We know that money can’t buy happiness.
The thing is, even though we know this, most of us struggle to live this way.
That is, most of us are seduced by the same message that captures the soul of the farmer in Jesus’ parable.
Which isn’t really all that surprising.
Whatever our technological advances over the last 2,000 years, whatever our intellectual ability or achievements, each of us and the human race as a whole remain dependent, vulnerable, fragile beings.
And so, human life is filled with uncertainty and insecurity.
And maybe for this very reason we are tempted to strive for security through money.
The farmer is called a fool not because of his wealth nor his ambition, but rather because he gives finite things infinite value.
And in doing so, he fails to love God and love his neighbor as himself.
He has all he thinks he needs and more, yet at the end—which comes that very night—it proves to be not enough.
This parable is challenging, is it not?
But, if we take it to heart it is actually liberating.
After-all, to identify and reject what is idolatrous greed in our lives is to discover the possibility of being “rich toward God.”
With this in mind, what should we do in response to Jesus’ parable?
There can be no doubt that here at Red Bank United Methodist Church, not unlike many churches, only a few people tithe—that means giving a tenth of our income to God.
A tithe is not a dollar in the plate unless all you make a week is $10.00.
This church has so much going for it.
You have an amazing food pantry that has given you an A+ reputation in this community.
You have one of the best Preschools in Chattanooga.
You are great people, wonderful Christians.
And you have been appointed a wonderful new pastor in Elizabeth Hamilton.
It’s a fresh start!
And what if everyone here today who does not currently tithe were to decide that with this fresh start you are going to up your giving to God through this Church?
What if you decide today that saving souls is more important than buying more stuff?
What ministries could flourish—really take off that are struggling due to a lack of funds?
How many more people could you reach for Jesus Christ if you just give what God asks you to give?
In the Book of Malachi, the people are having a rough time.
They have strayed from God.
Then God says to them, “Return to me and I will return to you…Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.
Test me in this, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be enough room to store it.”
Red Bank United Methodist Church has a beautiful building with amazing ministries on a busy street in a growing community.
There is no reason why this sanctuary shouldn’t be filled with new converts and people who are so excited to be used to make more.
So, let’s do it.
Start afresh with a great new pastor.
Now is the time.
Praise God!
Amen.
